A’s roster moves: A.J. Puk reinstated, Kevin Smith to injured list, Mickey McDonald called up

The Oakland A’s roster continued to churn on Wednesday, as the team announced several moves to account for new injuries and evolving COVID situations. The latest updates:

• LHP A.J. Puk reinstated from COVID injured list
• LHP Zack Logue sent down to Triple-A
• IF Kevin Smith to 10-day injured list
• OF Mickey McDonald called up from Triple-A

The moves came altogether in one swoop, but they can be broken into two convenient pairs.

Puk returns, Logue down

Puk was on the COVID IL along with a half-dozen other players, and Logue was one of the emergency substitutes who was called up using special rules to replace COVID absences. Now that Puk is back, one of the subs had to go back down, and fellow lefty reliever Logue was the pick.

Logue was already on the 40-man roster before being called up as a COVID sub on Friday, so he remains on the 40-man now while he’s in Triple-A, but he didn’t need to use an option to come up and down this past week due to the special rules. While he was here he made his MLB debut, coming out of the bullpen Tuesday to record four outs and earn the win.

Smith to IL, McDonald called up

Meanwhile, Smith appeared to hurt himself during the game Monday, and was seen in a walking boot on Tuesday. He has been diagnosed with a bruised bone in his left ankle, and placed on the 10-day IL. To take his spot, McDonald was called up.

This is the first trip to the majors for McDonald, and when he takes the field it will be his MLB debut. The local San Mateo product was an 18th-round draft pick in 2017 and worked his way up the minor league system using defense, speed, and on-base skills despite a lack of power. The lefty batter was off to a slow start in Triple-A this month (8-for-36, 58 wRC+) but showed what he could do last year in 56 games for Las Vegas.

• McDonald, 2021 AAA: .333/.423/.438, 123 wRC+, 1 HR, 10 SB, 11.4% BB, 18.4% Ks

He was not previously on the 40-man roster, so he was first added to that list in order to join the active 28-man roster. He was not added as a temporary COVID substitute, but rather as a normal permanent 40-man roster addition, so in order to go back to the minors he would need to be optioned. Welcome to the Show!

Side note: I’m not quite sure how this transaction works. The 40-man roster was already full, and none of the other moves (Puk, Logue, Smith) cleared a new spot for McDonald. My assumption is that there’s some wiggle room right now due to the heavy use of the COVID IL, but that means sometime down the road there will need to be another move to account for today’s addition of McDonald, meaning somebody else gets DFA’d or moved to the 60-day IL.

Roster update

Here’s the updated 28-man roster. There are six players on the COVID list (CV), three on the regular 10-day IL, two on the 60-day IL, and one on the Suspended List. Players marked with an asterisk* are specifically COVID substitutes called up under that special set of rules (Nick Allen was already on the 40-man, the others were not).